In a video chat shown live at a Feb. 18 event at the University of Denver, Christopher Hill, dean of DU’s Korbel School of International Studies (left), spoke to Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister and a DU graduate. (Denver Post and AP file photos)

Claudia Rosett is critical of an interview by Christopher Hill, dean of the University of Denver’s Korbel School of International Studies, with Javad Sharif, one of the school’s most influential graduates.

Zarif is currently Iran’s foreign minister. This event was to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the University of Denver, hardly the venue for confrontational skewering.

Off the mark, Rosett criticizes Hill, a former U.S. ambassador, for the results of negotiations he held in North Korea over their nuclear program. Surely she knows that evaluating international negotiations is tricky. The stipulations, the boundaries, the flexibility allowed are unknown to observers. One can criticize the governments for the results, but not the negotiators.

Hill has brought a high level of engagement with world leaders to the Korbel School. He has hired several new professors of international renown. The graduate students, headed for professional international positions, are well-served by his prior experience. The development of Korbel into a first-rate academic organization benefits all of us in Colorado.

Janet MacKenzie, Denver

This letter was published in the March 16 edition.

I can find only one good thing about the welcome that the University of Denver gave to Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif. Namely, the event wasn’t funded by Colorado taxpayers. Some eager students at the private university are wasting their time and parents’ tuition money on the chicanery of a prominent leader in a nation that is Israel’s sworn enemy.

Zarif may have good reason to curry favor with his alma mater. He may need their help someday if the assassinations of Iran’s top nuclear experts don’t stop, as reported by Barry Lando, a former investigative producer with CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

Tom Carllon, Denver

This letter was published in the March 16 edition.

The article describing the Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, as “nuke thug” was defamatory not only to a well-informed reasonable man, but also to the University of Denver, one of the great schools of our state that has fostered intelligent discussion of international issues. Claudia Rosett, the author of this right-wing claptrap and contributor to the conservative propaganda rag National Review, appears to promote the notion that it’s OK for Israel, prime violator of human rights, to defy the world community by having stockpiles of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, but it’s not OK for Iran to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes.

We should thank DU and hope that the university will continue to invite important, well-informed guests who promote dialogue that allows the public to form opinions devoid of prejudices and biases that defy reason and serve to incite conflict.

Walter Heidenfelder, Denver

This letter was published in the March 16 edition.

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A sculpture called “The Sleepwalker” stands on the campus of Wellesley College on Feb. 6 in Wellesley, Mass. The statue by artist Tony Matelli has prompted an online student petition to have it removed. (Darren McCollester, Getty Images North America)

Dottie Lamm’s column about the controversial statue by artist Tony Matelli was excellent.

As a Wellesley College alumna who spent many hours in the Jewett Art Center absorbing ancient art, post-modern art and contemporary art and trying to understand what it was telling me, I am proud of Wellesley for exposing current students to a “sculpture” that gets them talking and thinking. That’s what art should be!

Yes, “The Sleepwalker” is weird, but let’s remember he’s harmless because he’s asleep. I like the idea of students dressing him in warm clothes because he’s out in the snow. This is a playful way to deal with the confrontation.

I remember the armless Greek statue beside the library having a bandage taped to her arm every spring. Wellesley students are highly intelligent and also have a great sense of humor. Let them deal with this new intrusive idea any way they wish!

Roberta Fletcher Heisterkamp, Denver

This letter was published in the March 16 edition.

I’m sorry Dottie Lamm used her considerable platform to lecture young women against speaking up for themselves and their experiences with this pat answer to reality-based fear: Power through it, women, and don’t get in the way of “free expression.”

Since when is it OK to tell people who feel terrorized that their terror means nothing in the face of “art”? It’s clear that Lamm and others she quoted don’t study the current state of pornography or even sexualized pop culture, let alone rape culture, and that is where they are missing significant context for what the women at Wellesley are protesting.

Enough is enough. We learned long ago from feminists of Lamm’s generation to listen to women. We need to get back to that and stop telling women they’re wrong about expressing their experiences and asking for real changes in their world.

Ame Lewis, Lakewood

This letter was published in the March 16 edition.

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A destitute man sleeps on the sidewalk under a window with a mannequin wearing expensive clothing at Blanc de Chine, in New York. The gap between the richest Americans and everyone else is growing. (Mark Lennihan, Associated Press file)

The staggering problem of the income and livability gap between rich and poor in this country is largely due to our ignorance of history.

We began with only the rich (mostly merchants) paying taxes. Yes, they paid 100 percent (or close) of our taxes, for there was no semblance of a “middle class,” and the poor, of course, had nothing to donate to General Washington’s Army but their bodies. This “grand bargain” gave the wealthy a lot of special privileges for wholly supporting the government. Many of the wealthy, at that time, also felt and acted like it was in their interest to fight for their country.

Since then, with our ignorance and our permission, our leaders have allowed the advantages and profits of the wealthiest to skyrocket, and their (actually paid) taxes to wither.

Hence, the gap.

R. Kiefer, Arvada

This letter was published in the March 16 edition.

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Kei Lehigh’s letter noting that the proud history of the Republican Party is one of abolishing slavery, unifying the nation, expanding the right to vote and supporting the 1964 Civil Rights Act brings into stark relief the current direction of the GOP. Can Lehigh explain why today’s GOP has apparently performed a complete about-face on these principles in just the last 40 years?

Harry Doby, Aurora

This letter was published in the March 16 edition.

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Does “life” begin at conception? At the moment of conception you have one single cell which is organic and has human DNA. That’s it. It also has a statistically significant chance of not implanting properly in the uterus and will cease all being without anyone ever being aware it is there.

Human life is what we think, what we feel, how we react to our environment and the relationships we forge. Without these characteristics you have taken every bit of humanity out of the human. If this fits someone’s definition of life, fine. However, it does not fit mine. I am a religious person and I believe that there is a strong difference between existence and life in the eyes of the divine.

Mark Harvey, Arvada

This letter was published in the March 16 edition.

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I was curious about Trader Joe’s and went to check out the Orchard and University store. I felt like I had gone back in time to 1950. The store was not impressive, lacked variety, and prices were higher than at Safeway. I will stay with Safeway for the clean stores, super variety, helpful, courteous workers and Safeway brands. I can shop for everything I need without going to several stores. King Soopers and Safeway get my business. California can keep Trader Joe’s.

Janice Peters, Englewood

This letter was published in the March 16 edition.

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Eugene Robinson proclaims that “Slavery’s story is America’s story.” America didn’t invent slavery; it has existed for millennia. America shamefully participated in it, but we also extricated ourselves from it.

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